Desperation on the streets
Zimbabwean cobbler Edwell - not his real name - has been mending shoes on the streets of the capital, Harare, for nearly 20 years. But the 46-year-old tells the BBC News website how police forced him off the pavement as part of a crackdown on the country's huge informal business sector.

Zimbabweans waiting for transport to travel home jostling for space on one of the few buses available due to the acute fuel shortages
Commuter buses are now so rare that people have to push for places
It was just past noon when a Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) pick-up truck drove up to the pavement where I sit and mend shoes.

Two policemen accompanied by two other men got out. As they walked towards me they said: "You need to take your things and go."

I asked them why but they refused to explain.

They were very firm and just kept saying: "We don't want you, we don't want you here, we want you to go from this place."

Even though I was so afraid, I tried arguing with them but I failed.

'Wrong side'

Full of fear, I tried asking again but all they would say was: "We don't want excuses."

Shouting, "Listen, take your things and go" they then started chasing the ladies selling vegetables away and so I put all my tools and customer's shoes into my sack.

I am suffering even more than before now, my family is suffering because I am not doing anything
The ladies were all chased out.

I haven't seen them since. They're not selling vegetables any more and so they must be suffering too.

The men didn't take anything from me but I was so afraid.

I am lucky because the owners of the business near the pavement, where I mended shoes for about 20 years, are letting me work in their yard.

But now only my regulars know where I am. Passers-by cannot see me anymore because now I am on the wrong side of the wall.

There is little fuel now and commuter buses are very scarce and so I walk the 10km to work and then back home again when it is dark.

 

Driven to tears

I am suffering even more than before now.

A looted supermarket in Harare after hundreds of residents rioted after police destroyed street stalls in an ongoing crackdown on vendors and other illegals in the capital (AFP/Getty Images)
Edwell fears his problems will affect his son's future

My family is suffering because I am not doing anything.

I am not very busy, sure.

I charge Z$15,000 ($0.26) to fix heels and for soles it is about Z$35,000 ($0.60) and now that I am hardly doing anything I am crying.

I recently had to buy my 15-year-old son some things for school. All I could afford was his books, a new pair of shoes and socks and some short trousers and it came to over Z$200,000 ($3.60).

I still have to pay his school fees for this term which come to Z$350,000 ($6.20).

I don't know how I will be able to.